Dr Jane Ali-Knight is a Professor in Festival and Event Management at Edinburgh Napier University and is a Visiting Professor at Curtin University, Australia. She is Programme Director of the award winning ‘Destination Leadership Programme’; leads the Festival and Events discipline; lectures at universities internationally and facilitates training and development in the field.    

A recognised academic, she has presented at major international and national conferences, and has published widely in the areas of wine tourism and regional development; destination marketing and management; festival and event marketing and management, accessibility, and well-being. She has also edited seminal texts in Festival and Event Management. Jane has extensive experience in planning, designing, and delivering undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional courses and consultancy projects in tourism, festival, and event management both in the UK and overseas. 

Jane is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Higher Education Academy and a Trustee of Women in Tourism; British Arts Festivals Association; Without Walls: Innovators in Outdoor Arts and Hidden Door Festival.